Well, people, I bit the bullet and bought my wedding gown.  No, I did not pay $1,425.  I paid $300 and no, I'm not stupid.  Believe me, a lot of checks and balances went into purchasing my dream dress for 20% of the retail value.
1. I actually tried the dress on.  I found it at a high-end Chicago boutique.  The designer is San Patrick.  It's everything I wanted in a dress for a destination wedding.  It doesn't look like a puffy, elaborate quinceanera dress.  It's sleek, chic, and perfect for a petite midget like me.
2. I found the dress on Buyer100.com which is probably a slave labor camp for Chinese women.  While there are several of these 'made-in-China' sites, I particularly liked Buyer100 for their thoroughness and promptness in responding to all of my emails.  I feel like I have a pen pal relationship with Adela in Beijing.  Their pricing is slightly higher, but I appreciated their higher standard of customer service.
3. Buyer100 sent me at least a dozen pictures of actual dresses that they've created on mannequins.  I was able to compare these with the designer pictures to get a sense for how closely they resemble the couture dresses.  They are pretty damn close.  I'm not going to lie and say they're identical.  It's obvious why a dress is several thousand dollars--there's more beading, more lace.  It really does look better, but the difference surely does not warrant a several thousand dollar difference.
4. The normal turnaround time is two months, but I decided to get mine expedited to one month for an additional 10%.  So call me in a month and ask if I'm happy.
5. They have a 100% return guarantee within seven days.  If for any reason I'm unhappy, I'm shipping that dress back pronto.
6. I paid with my credit card which I think eliminates a lot of the riskiness factor.  If it doesn't show up in one month...I'll make sure my credit card refunds me.  Not what I wanted?...I'll be sure to get my money back.  Worst case scenario and the shop is a scam?  I'm fully protected.
Looking forward to the package arriving in the mail.  30 day countdown.
Monday, November 9, 2009
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